Author’s note:
I have compiled over a dozen overseas media sources, as well as U.S. media sources, and provides quotes and links in this article. There is a lot of information out there that paints two very different pictures of what happened in Afghanistan. It’s up to you, the reader, to decide what to believe. I encourage you to read the full version.
Excerpt:
In the early morning hours of March 11 in the volatile Panjwai district of Kandahar Province, 16 Afghan civilians, 9 of them children, were shot or stabbed to death by at least one American soldier. Some of the bodies were burned. While both U.S. media and overseas media reports agree on that, the reports vary widely concerning information beyond those basic facts.
U.S. Media Reports
Every major U.S. network, cable and print media outlet report that the killings were done by a single U.S. soldier who left a small combat outpost and walked into two nearby villages. After a six-day blackout of public information about the shooter, he was identified as Staff Sergeant Robert Bales of the 3rd Stryker Brigade based out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. A surveillance video was produced that shows Bales surrendering to guards at the base in Afghanistan. No need to quote sources or post links – all of the above is common knowledge to anyone following the story in the U.S. The reports echo President Obama’s statement on March 12: “It appeared you had a lone gunman who acted on his own.”
Foreign Media Reports
While the Afghan and U.S. government may be on the same page publicly, that may not be the case privately, according to overseas media reports. One thing is certain, the U.S. media and foreign media are not on the same page.
In Afghanistan another version of the story is developing that the U.S. corporate media fails to even acknowledge. According to several overseas media sources, Afghanistan President Karzai accuses the US government of covering up the truth about the killings and Afghanistan Parliament members, investigators and local witnesses have a compiled a mountain of corroborating evidence that shows that as many as 20 U.S. soldiers were involved in a coordinated, execution-type operation in the two villages that night. (See video in link).
The parliamentary probe report was picked up by many foreign media outlets, including IRIB in Iran, Russia Today, DeMorgen.be in Belgium, Mondoweiss in Israel and Reuters UK edition. DeMorgen.be quoted Karzai saying “According to our people, the act is not performed by a single man and it was a conscious and deliberate act.”
The account of President Karzai’s reaction to the massacre is very different in foreign media as well. The Morning Star in the UK reports: (See slideshow in link).
Afghan President Hamid Karzai…backed claims that more than one person had conducted the massacre of 16 civilians which US forces have blamed on a single soldier.
At a meeting with relatives of the nine children, four men and three women who were slain Mr Karzai said villagers’ accounts of the atrocity were “widely different” from the scenario depicted by US military officials.
The president pointed to a villager at the meeting and said: “In his family people were killed in four rooms and then they were brought together in one room and set on fire. That one man cannot do.”
He also blasted the US for refusing to share information from its investigation into the outrage, which was conducted in two separate villages.
A government delegation sent to Kandahar to investigate had “not received the expected co-operation of the United States,” he said, adding that he would raise the issue with the occupying army “very loudly.”
Russia Today corroborated the above report and added that “the relatives of the victims told President Karzai that the counterinsurgency operation had received air support. They also claim the killers were brought in by military helicopters.”
Sifting Through the Reports
Sifting through the reports raises many questions. How was one man able to evade the tight security that is found at forward operating bases (FOBs) while carrying enough weapons, ammunition and fuel to carry out the killings and burn bodies? How was Sgt. Bates able to travel 1.5 kilometer to the first village on foot (one of which is missing a part), then 2 kilometers to the next village and back to the base in about an hour? Are the time frame and distances accurate? Are the Afghani witnesses reliable? Will they be willing and/or allowed to testify? Will Staff Sergeant Bates be able to testify if he is suffering from memory loss? Will there even be a trial? Is President Karzai playing both sides of the fence by telling both President Obama and his own people what he thinks they want to hear? These questions are only the beginning. There will be many, many more.
Whether or not Staff Sergeant Bates acted alone, the blame will almost certainly fall on him and for that he may face the death penalty. Blaming one man, however, not only suppresses the horror of what routinely happens in all wars, but also mitigates the responsibility of those all the way up the chain of command to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Panetta, and President Obama. Calling this an isolated incident dismisses the pain and suffering of surviving family members, relatives, friends, and everyone victimized in wars by disregarding the fact that nothing can compensate for their loss. Prolonging this war ensures more loss and suffering not only for civilian families, but also for the many honorable soldiers that will inevitably make the ultimate sacrifice.
Yet nearly 11 years after the start of the Afghan war, as a result of political and economic powers that compel them, U.S. servicemen and women remain there, bombing villages, breaking down doors in the middle of the night, terrorizing innocent villagers, killing “suspected terrorists,” contributing in one way or another to a deepening humanitarian crisis, leaving in their wake untold numbers of casualties, and as a result of their actions, creating ever more enemies.
It is time to end this insanity and bring our troops home.
Read more, get links to more sources, video and a slideshow here: Madison Independent Examiner – Reports in U.S. and overseas media vastly different